She's not at death's door, but there's no guarantee that she'll ever be doing any better than she is now or how long into my adulthood she'll live. I always feel disingenuous when I pretend to be nice or sympathetic to someone when I don't feel it, but I imagine it's right and necessary to do so sometimes.

In my (limited) experience, often just listening is enough. People feel better if they have someone they can just say their problems to, fully knowing that that person will not be able to solve the problems or make them feel better.

I love this post so much I'm going to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant!

For the purposes of a presentation I'm working on for school, would you all say that it is well-known that there was a large advertising industry during the Victorian era? I've been assuming that it is not, but I don't want to patronize my classmates.

So I watched the Star Trek The Next Generation pilot, Encounter at Farpoint, today, in its new remastered HD version. Looks really good. Cant wait for the season box sets to start coming out, but before then i guess I ca watch the other two episodes on the "The Next Level" Bluray.

jvcc wrote:For the purposes of a presentation I'm working on for school, would you all say that it is well-known that there was a large advertising industry during the Victorian era? I've been assuming that it is not, but I don't want to patronize my classmates.

I think it is little-known enough not to be patronising. But then the only thing I would presume everyone knew about the victorian era is the weird sex stuff.

jvcc wrote:For the purposes of a presentation I'm working on for school, would you all say that it is well-known that there was a large advertising industry during the Victorian era? I've been assuming that it is not, but I don't want to patronize my classmates.

I think it is little-known enough not to be patronising. But then the only thing I would presume everyone knew about the victorian era is the weird sex stuff.

Do you mean lots and lots of porn weird or putting stockings on table legs weird? Because only one of those things is true.

I wouldn't expect them to know much more than that attitudes towards sex at the time were historically unusual. Maybe they believe in chair-skirts, maybe they don't. My target audience does not study the literature of this period and I expect a reasonable portion of them to have obtained most of their worldly knowledge by reading snippets of things celebrities have said.

ntw3001 wrote:I wouldn't expect them to know much more than that attitudes towards sex at the time were historically unusual. Maybe they believe in chair-skirts, maybe they don't. My target audience does not study the literature of this period and I expect a reasonable portion of them to have obtained most of their worldly knowledge by reading snippets of things celebrities have said.

Angelina Jolie and her kind are always giving people the wrong impression about chair-skirts.